Revolutionizing Expectations - by Melissa Estes Blair (Paperback)

About the Book

Blair explores feminist activism at the local level during a critical period of social transformation, showing how a multifaceted women's movement of white, African American, and Hispanic women worked together to bring about tremendous changes in the 1970s.

Book Synopsis

In the 1970s the women's movement created tremendous changes in the lives of women throughout the United States. Millions of women participated in a movement that fundamentally altered the country's ideas about how women could and should contribute to American society. Revolutionizing Expectations tells the story of some of those women, many of whom took part in the movement in unexpected ways. By looking at feminist activism in Durham, Denver, and Indianapolis, Melissa Estes Blair uncovers not only the work of local NOW chapters but also the feminist activism of Leagues of Women Voters and of women's religious groups in those pivotal cities.

Through her exploration of how women's organizations that were not explicitly feminist became channels for feminism, Blair expands our understanding of who feminists were and what feminist action looked like during the high tide of the women's movement. Revolutionizing Expectations looks beyond feminism's intellectual leaders and uncovers a multifaceted women's movement of white, African American, and Hispanic women from a range of political backgrounds and ages who worked together to bring about tremendous changes in their own lives and the lives of generations of women who followed them.

Review Quotes

Blair's book focuses on liberal rather than radical activists, local rather than national agendas, and small cities rather than large urban centers. In doing so, she demonstrates that feminism was a larger and more diverse movement than many of us have believed it to be. . . . This book provides a valuable case study of the challenges of making women's lives matter.--Jennifer Scanlon "Journal of American History"

In Revolutionizing Expectations, Melissa Estes Blair traces the nuances of the women's movement in cities far beyond the Northeast. This highly readable and thoughtfully researched book showcases how women made the movement in their own communities and reminds us of the value and importance of local histories in analyses of social movements. It belongs on the shelves of any person who wants to understand how and why grassroots feminism matters in the past and for the future.--Stephanie Gilmore "independent scholar and author of Groundswell: Grassroots Feminist Activism in Postwar America"

Melissa Blair's research combines primary and secondary sources, making excellent use of interviews with activists and archival materials. The book is well researched, clearly organized, and persuasively argued.--Amy Higer "H-Socialisms"

This study's focus is on groups often overlooked by scholars of the feminist movement in areas not normally considered hotbeds of feminism. . . . Blair's argument that scholars must look beyond a narrowly self-defined group of feminists when exploring women's activism in the late twentieth century is a significant contribution to the growing body of literature that seeks to expand the definition of feminist activity.--Megan Taylor Shockley "American Historical Review"

About the Author

MELISSA ESTES BLAIR is associate professor of history at Auburn University. She is the author of Revolutionizing Expectations: Women's Organizations, Feminism, and American Politics, 1965-1980 (Georgia). She lives in Auburn, Alabama.